Investor astronaut says NASA was right to scrap Constellation and support commercial space

View full sizeHitching a ride on top a special NASA Boeing 747 jet, the space shuttle Discovery soars past Capitol Hill in Washington, after a flight from Cape Canaveral, Fla., Tuesday, April 17, 2012. Discovery, the world's most traveled spaceship, now becomes an attraction at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum's Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va., next to Dulles International Airport. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A top NASA official is praising an essay published online today by a former astronaut about the end of the space shuttle era and NASA's support of the commercial space industry. NASA Associate Administrator Lori Garver, a strong proponent of NASA's new direction, called the essay by Richard Garriot de Cayeux "wonderful" in a tweet today linking to the work posted on the Huffington Post website.

"NASA had a plan, called Constellation, to take us back to the Moon and then on to Mars," Garriott de Cayeux writes. "However, this plan was far too expensive and would have taken far too long. Thus, no president or congress ever called for it to be funded, and it was eventually canceled. In the face of great adversity though, NASA has figured out a great solution."

The new plan allows NASA to focus on deep space, Garriott de Cayeux writes, and it is working despite the early upheaval. "Understandably, this plan is incredibly disruptive to the status quo, causing job losses in many of the NASA facilities and with traditional prime contractors, along with the divisive politics that come along with such huge changes," he said. "But it is also saving NASA huge amounts of money, while dramatically expanding its capabilities and letting it shop for varying solutions as its needs change."

Garriott de Cayeux paid for his own flight aboard a Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station in October 2008, returning 12 days later. His father, Owen Garriott, is a NASA astronaut who has flown twice into space.